Joey watched with a deep sadness in his eyes as Sandi excused herself from the dining room. He knew that the rest of the family would probably take the news hard, but he didn’t expect to see Sandi’s face fall and that she’d need to leave the room. Joey never wanted to hurt her by telling her the truth, and the fact that he caused such distress left him feeling sick to his stomach.
His adoptive mother and father were handling it a bit better, maintaining a stoic expression as they processed the news. Having been alive much longer than all 4 of their children, the two adults were a bit more experienced with handling bad news, especially news of the life-altering kind like what Joey had just told them.
However, while both were putting on a brave front for the sake of their son, Jeff and Kat couldn’t help feeling a mixture of emotions swirling inside them. For Jeff, everything that had happened in the last two days had challenged and possibly changed his idea of underbreds and littles. He had harbored a lot of resentment over the past couple years since Lily was revealed to be vulnerable and was told by his younger sister that she completely had forgotten him. Mr. Hale had taken that at face value and because of that, he never looked at underbreds or littles with the best views.
Now, though, knowing the truth about the chip implant from Preema Tech, and that his little sister had lied, Jeff felt a great deal of guilt for his views. He looked at Joey and felt this guilt grow and grow. He was so harsh last night and now, the boy he’d viewed and taken in as his son, is going to change sooner than anyone had expected.
Kat was processing things a little differently. Similar to her eldest daughter, Mrs. Hale found it unfair and disheartening to see Joey go from a bad situation like he had with his parents, to one that the Hales intended to be better, just for it to be short lived. She thought that they’d have more time to bond as a new official family, that she would get to see Joey being a sibling all hours of the day, to see him be the responsible young man she knew him to be, and to support him in his endeavors for however long she could until his change. However this wouldn’t be the case. The revelation that he was showing signs of the impending change squashed that hope for her, and Mrs. Hale knew that it had to pain her son deeply.
What was worse for her were the realizations regarding littles she herself was also making. Kat had been so oblivious to their plight before, having only taken information from school assemblies and the news media. Mrs. Hale didn’t hate littles, or think of them as like objects or something like that. No, to her own horror, Mrs. Hale realized she had nothing-ed them. She didn’t pay them any mind, or consider them much at all. She and her family were all immune, and that was all that mattered to her. Now, though, there was someone she genuinely cared about, sitting right in front of her, that would be subjected to the things she had never bothered to look into until today while her husband had taken him and her eldest daughter out to put the plan into action. The things she had read and videos she had watched regarding littles all over the world were enough the cause bile to form in her throat and further fill her with guilt for never being more active in knowing more about littles and helping those who would eventually become them.
Before either parent could break the silence, though, it was Ciara’s fidgeting in her seat that caught their attention. Underbreds and Littles weren’t overly discussed in classes for children of her age, and while she understood that there would be changes and that Joey would be smaller, CIara just wasn’t completely certain what that reality would look like. To her, Joey was just JoJo, the big, goofy, caring person that made her smile and laugh with silly antics. Even with her imagination, she just couldn’t picture a tiny JoJo standing before her. She didn’t want things to change, either. Ciara wanted to show Joey her drawings, play video games with him, get piggy back rides and playfully thrown around by him. She wanted to be the center of attention and Joey always knew when to give it to her.
The realization that things would be drastically different was starting to settle in, and Ciara didn’t feel the playful joy that she had the day before. Instead she felt a strange sadness and anxiety. Before anyone could say anything, though, she scooted her chair back and jumped up, her lips in a pout and her eyes shimmering.
“I don’t want JoJo to change!” was all she cried as she ran from the dining room. Both parents exchanged looks of concern, and as they were getting ready to stand, Joey made the first move.
“I’ll talk to her…” he said, a forced smile of reassurance on his face. “You both have done more than enough for us today…Roni and I can take care of CiCi and Sandi. Promise”
With that, Joey exited the dining room, leaving his new parents alone with their thoughts and to finish cleaning up from dinner, and made his way upstairs. As he made it to the top and turned towards Ciara’s room, he could hear the muffled words of Roni and Sandi. Both must have been talking about something serious, and his stomach formed a knot at the idea that it was his fault again, feeling that he’s letting his problems negatively affect everyone around him.
However, those feelings would have to wait, as his baby sister needed him. He made it to the end of the hallway and, steeling himself, gently opened the door to Ciara’s room, where she was laying on her bed, her face buried in a pillow as she clutched a stuffed elephant.
Slowly, Joey approached Ciara and sat on the edge of her bed, gently placing a hand on her back.
“Cici…you know I don’t like seeing you cry.” he said softly, hearing her sniffle. “In fact, if you start crying, well, I’ll start. And..and..” he trailed off as he started to pretend to get choked up and sniffle.
Ciara slowly lifted her face from her pillow, tears dried on her cheeks and her eye still red, and sniffled a little more before extending the elephant out to Joey. “Do…do you need to hold Mr. Peanut?”
Joey let a small smile show on his face at the offer, having always enjoyed the empathy Ciara had and her desire to help people. “How about you sit up and we set Mr. Peanut between us, okay?”
Wiping her eyes, CIara sat up and scooted next to Joey, placing her stuffed elephant between her and Joey. Joey looked at it and, internally grimaced. In the near future, Mr. Peanut and he would be the same height, and that was if he was lucky. He forced a smile as he looked at Ciara, but deep inside he knew that he would be looking up at her too, smaller than her dolls for the rest of his life.
However, he took a deep breath and pushed these thoughts out of his mind. Joey knew that they weren’t the pressing issue, and that he needed to focus.
“CiCi, what’s wrong?” he ask gently.
Ciara looked up at him and her lip quivered a moment before he put her arm around her.
“CiCi, I’m not going anywhere you know. It’s the opposite actually. I’m going to be here. Forever. Doesn’t that sound fun?” asked Joey, his tone measured and reassuring.
Ciara wiped her nose once more, “Jojo…you’re going to be tiny” she said as she raised her hand and pinched her fingers close together to illustrate her point. “You won’t–you won’t by JoJo anymore.”
“Oh CiCi. How could you think that? Sure I’ll be…smaller…but I’ll still be me. You know that, don’t you?”
“But…teacher. She says that the littles are animals. That they’re different.” Ciara said, her voice shaky. “You’re an animal”
Joey winced at this momentarily, before taking a deep breath. While it stung hearing it from Ciara, he knew that schools would be touching on this subject, curriculum or otherwise, and that the bluntness at which she said it was just the way most children speak.
“Yes CiCi, I am an animal. But, so what? Didn’t teacher tell you Littles can talk? And dance? And make jokes? And look at their friends paintings and drawings? And play different kinds of games?”Joey asked, a small smile forming on his face again. “Now, who does that sound like to you, CiCi”
Ciara looked at him and thought about it a moment, before she started to smile slowly. “You…it sounds like you, JoJo”
“Exactly, CiCi!” he exclaimed, happy to see her smile come back. “Yeah I might end up being smaller, but I’ll stil be able to talk to you and look at your drawings and listen to those cool stories you make up! And the best part: I’ll always be right down the hall, hanging with Roni in case you need me!”
Ciara giggled, looking at the door leading to the hall and then back to Joey. “That does sound nice.”
“There ya go…that’s the happy CiCi I love to see” Joey said as he brought her into his embrace, the two of them hugging.
Ciara buried her face into his chest, her spirits lifted and things seeming more hopeful to her now. Joey would always be around, she could tell him stories, show him her paintings, talk to him about school or ask for help on homework. Even if she’s upset, Ciara will know exactly where to go for help.
As the two separated, Ciara was giving Joey a big smile, clearly happy with the future. Joey, for his part, was just happy to see her smile. He still wasn’t too certain what the future would look like though. He’d be tiny, a few inches tall, and having to come to terms that his entire life would be dependant on the decisions of others. He wouldn’t have relevance, status, social interaction, or anything like that unless Roni decided it was okay. That wasn’t even his biggest worry. No, for Joey, what really bothered him was the fear that she would eventually relegate him in her life, that Roni would no longer see him as a friend, but as a responsibility and pet to carry around.
Ciara could see something was bothering him. Sure he was smiling at her, his trademark sideways smile that he flashed to everyone, but her empathic nature and sociable nature weren’t fooled. She could still see a hint of something in his eyes, but Ciara wasn’t certain what.
“Jojo…is it going to hurt? When you…you know” Ciara asked nervously, thinking that he was afraid of the pain of changing.
Joey frowned as he thought about it for a moment, as he honestly wasn’t quite sure. A lot of the online postings never seemed to go over that, as the guardians were normally the ones writing the posts. It’s possible it’d be very painful, but it’s also possible he would fall asleep and it would happen like Tanya.
Sighing, he shook his head. “I don’t know CiCi. It might, but, well you’ll be here to make me feel better, won’t you?” he asked her, making her smile and nod.
“Are…you afraid of being so small?” Ciara immediately followed up, this time making Joey falter slightly, before regaining his composure, smiling at her and shaking his head.
“I’ll have you to protect me CiCi. And Roni, and Sandi, and our mom and dad.” Joey answered, and, before Ciara could go into a barrage of questions, Joey quickly started tickling her ribs, making Ciara giggle and then start laughing hysterically as she tried to fend off his assault.
“Hey, why don’t we play with your dolls CiCi.” Joey suggested as he stopped his tickle attack, and smiled seeing her face light up.
“JoJo, you are the best! I’m so happy your my big brother now!” Ciara said excitedly as she hugged him again and got up, scurrying to the closet and rummaging through her toys to find the right dolls to play with.
Joey chuckled to himself as she looked back and forth between a few options. At least she’s cheered up, he thought to himself. He replayed her last question in his head a few times, before letting out a quiet sigh. “I am scared, Cici” he whispered to himself before she turned around to hand him a Ken doll dressed in a baseball uniform to use.
The two both sat down on the carpet and began their game of pretend. The dolls they used moved with playful animation and interacted with each other in funny voices the two came up with on the fly. They both giggled and laughed, and enjoyed their company as they went.
Ciara, though, still worried about Joey. While they continued their game, she pictured him, small, vulnerable, and alone. It was these pictures that encouraged her to promise something to herself. “I’ll help you and protect you, Jojo” Ciara affirmed to herself, her smile widening. “No one will be mean to you ever, not while I’m around”
Their time together I think will be important because Ciara is at a age where she can commit a lot of time to spend with him and play games that they always did but she would be the one giving him piggy back rides and he would have to sit in her lap as she told him stories. I think between the three girls they can always have him busy and not be alone. Roni will not have to do everything alone. They just have to set up safety rules and I think the girls and joey will have fun having Joey as the common thread spending time with all of them at school, after school stuff and at home.
there is definetly room for all of them to be involved with Joey post shrinking though it wouldn’t be immediate or unsupervised for a little bit. I think Roni would want to make sure her family, Ciara especially, knows how to properly take care of Joey and protect him before really letting them help out.
1) That is what I thought also and I think Ciara will love being able to doat of Little Joey and love and protect him because now she isn’t the smallest in the family anymore and has a baby big brother to take care of and be the center of all her activity’s at home lol.
2) Having raised a daughter now in college he has many years to be pampered like a good favorite doll that is always part of every adventure lol.
1) “He knew that the rest of the family would probably take the news hard, but he didn’t expect to see Sandi’s face fall and that she’d need to leave the room. Joey never wanted to hurt her by telling her the truth” in cases like this he needs to weigh the guilt of telling her vs not telling her.
2.1) “For Jeff, everything that had happened in the last two days had challenged and possibly changed his idea of underbreds and littles” good to know.
2.2) “since Lily was revealed to be vulnerable and was told by his younger sister that she completely had forgotten him. Mr. Hale had taken that at face” that’s an understandable
2.3) “he never looked at underbreds or littles with the best views.” I love how “underbreds” and “littles” are two different things in his mind.
3) “He looked at Joey and felt this guilt grow and grow. He was so harsh last night and now, the boy he’d viewed and taken in as his son, is going to change sooner than anyone had expected” good thing Joey’s the forgiving type.
4) “Mrs. Hale found it unfair and disheartening to see Joey go from a bad situation like he had with his parents, to one that the Hales intended to be better, just for it to be short-lived” that would suck, but so much about what happens to littles is unfair.
5) “Kat had been so oblivious to their plight before, having only taken information from school assemblies and the news media” and I’m sure they gave unbiased and not politically slanted versions of events.
6.1) “No, to her own horror, Mrs. Hale realized she had nothing-ed them. She didn’t pay them any mind, or consider them much at all” Well, that’s not too bad, I think it’s a harmless (though useless) stance to have.
6.2) “She and her family were all immune, and that was all that mattered to her” which she’s known for less than a week now.
7) “The things she had read and videos she had watched regarding littles all over the world were enough the cause bile to form in her throat and further fill her with guilt for never being more active in knowing more about littles and helping those who would eventually become them.” in fairness a lot of that stuff is heavily censored and filtered before it gets to the U.S.
8) “Underbreds and Littles weren’t overly discussed in classes for children of her age” that’s interesting that she’d be considered too young to learn about littles.
9) “She didn’t want things to change, either. Ciara wanted to show Joey her drawings, play video games with him, get piggyback rides and playfully thrown around by him. She wanted to be the center of attention and Joey always knew when to give it to her.” some of those things can still happen, just not the physical ones.
10) “I don’t want JoJo to change!” Neither does JoJo, CiCi
11) “I’ll talk to her… You both have done more than enough for us today…Roni and I can take care of CiCi and Sandi. Promise” How does he know Sandi went to Roni?
12) “his stomach formed a knot at the idea that it was his fault again, feeling that he’s letting his problems negatively affect everyone around him.” that’s a lot of guild he’ll be holding.
13.1) “she was laying on her bed, her face buried in a pillow as she clutched a stuffed elephant.” cute.
13.2) “Do…do you need to hold Mr. Peanut?” So fucking cute. But also genuie kindness.
14) “In the near future, Mr. Peanut and he would be the same height, and that was if he was lucky” I was imagining Mr Peanut would be the size of a real elephant compared to infected Joey. but it seems smaller than that.
15) “CiCi, what’s wrong?” take a wild fucking guess, Joey.
16) “CiCi, I’m not going anywhere you know. It’s the opposite actually. I’m going to be here. Forever. Doesn’t that sound fun?” that lines gonna bite him in the ass once he’s sent to a facility for several months.
17) “You won’t–you won’t by JoJo anymore.” She has about the understanding I thought she would.
18) “But…teacher. She says that the littles are animals. That they’re different. You’re an animal” Yeah well, that teacher’s a cunt.
19) “he knew that schools would be touching on this subject, curriculum or otherwise” that is how indoctrination works.
20) “Yes CiCi, I am an animal. But, so what? Didn’t teacher tell you Littles can talk? And dance? And make jokes? And look at their friends’ paintings and drawings? And play different kinds of games?” Is he not gonna mention that Humans are also animals?
21) “Yeah, I might end up being smaller, but I’ll still be able to talk to you and look at your drawings and listen to those cool stories you make up!” Joey’s good aty putting it a way she’ll understand.
22) “He’d be tiny, a few inches tall, and having to come to terms that his entire life would be dependant on the decisions of others. He wouldn’t have relevance, status, social interaction, or anything like that unless Roni decided it was okay” no matter how much he trusts Roni, that’d be a terrifying thought.
23) “Jojo…is it going to hurt? When you…you know” He’ll be unconscious for it.
24) “A lot of the online postings never seemed to go over that” safe to bet that if it was painful it’d be mentioned. No news is good news type deal.
25) “I’ll have you to protect me CiCi. And Roni, and Sandi, and our mom and dad.” It’s good to make her feel important.
26) “JoJo, you are the best! I’m so happy you’re my big brother now!” little brother soon enough.
27) “I am scared, Cici” Of course he is, who wouldn’t be?
28) “I’ll help you and protect you, Jojo, No one will be mean to you ever, not while I’m around” Cici’s perfect.
they sound like they have a poor school system because technically humans are omnivore animals. We are just evolved primates but many people don’t like to think of all the stuff we do because of what our animal instincts tell us to do. Company’s sell us products to serve our animal nature like lip stick and blush for woman. They are attractive to men because it makes a woman look like they are ready to mate. There are tons of stuff like that. Its funny to watch a documentary on it or look it up on line if you want.
I wouldn’t say they have a poor school system. This will probably be a double response when I get around to replying to leathal, but he did think to mention that humans are animals too, but this was more about reassurance and trying to be brave for Ciara’s sake than anything.
Plus I don’t remember when I learned about humans being animals in school lol if it was at 3rd or 4th grade, I honestly don’t remember. I remember learning about cells in like 6th or 7th grade and then more so in high school, but as for when I learned about the technicalities of humans, I have no clue where I got that from
1) Cici’s response to protect him warmed my heart
2) I was in grade school because I was in cub scouts and they had us go up in the mountains and track mountain lions, bears and small fox’s and mice. We had to learn where we were on the food chain with and without rifles lol. I never got into hunting like my friend’s did but those lessons stuck with me when I went camping and hiking lol.
1) “He knew that the rest of the family would probably take the news hard, but he didn’t expect to see Sandi’s face fall and that she’d need to leave the room. Joey never wanted to hurt her by telling her the truth” in cases like this he needs to weigh the guilt of telling her vs not telling her.
Facts. It’s part of his introverted nature. Typically he’ll be a people pleaser and would rather not upset anyone. Roni encourages him to not be like that though.
2.1) “For Jeff, everything that had happened in the last two days had challenged and possibly changed his idea of underbreds and littles” good to know.
Agreed. I think it’s good to have characters that aren’t set in their ways to an extreme. Not that everyone falls in that category in the stories, but setting up some of the characters I want to show up in the later chapters a bit consistently I think will help me out.
2.2) “since Lily was revealed to be vulnerable and was told by his younger sister that she completely had forgotten him. Mr. Hale had taken that at face” that’s an understandable
Yeah, and why wouldn’t he. The youngest sister is bratty but they did love each other. Just Lily being a little and him not being the guardian made up a lot of resentment.
2.3) “he never looked at underbreds or littles with the best views.” I love how “underbreds” and “littles” are two different things in his mind.
That’s a good point. I didn’t think of that until now, but I guess you could equate it to some people seeing underbreds being false humans and littles being strictly animals
3) “He looked at Joey and felt this guilt grow and grow. He was so harsh last night and now, the boy he’d viewed and taken in as his son, is going to change sooner than anyone had expected” good thing Joey’s the forgiving type.
For sure. People have to have wronged him for quite a while to not be forgiven easily. He can tell when some things are intentionally said to hurt him and when others are in the heat of the moment.
4) “Mrs. Hale found it unfair and disheartening to see Joey go from a bad situation like he had with his parents, to one that the Hales intended to be better, just for it to be short-lived” that would suck, but so much about what happens to littles is unfair.
True.
5) “Kat had been so oblivious to their plight before, having only taken information from school assemblies and the news media” and I’m sure they gave unbiased and not politically slanted versions of events.
Of course. Why wouldn’t they?
6.1) “No, to her own horror, Mrs. Hale realized she had nothing-ed them. She didn’t pay them any mind, or consider them much at all” Well, that’s not too bad, I think it’s a harmless (though useless) stance to have.
It’s kind of the Greg stance minus a desire or a family interest in owning a little. Sandi is really the only one to consider owning a little. Ciara just never thought of it, and Roni thought it’d need to be a very, very specific circumstance as just owning a little when she sees them as more than that makes her uncomfortable. To be honest, I’m not even certain she’d have immediately jumped at the chance of being Joey’s guardian had he not told her everything about being sent away on purpose and had she not known how he and his parents got along. She may have given it much more thought and tried to convince his parents to let Johnny do it and maybe ask to be a secondary guardian to help Johnny. Which I could see happening if Joey and his parents had a better relationship (i.e. if Joey was complicate lol)
6.2) “She and her family were all immune, and that was all that mattered to her” which she’s known for less than a week now.
True. I think Roni was the last one to get her results, but yeah she wasn’t fully relieved until then. I probably should have said “All she had been concerned about were her family’s immunity, and the confirmation of it removed all interest in the subject”
7) “The things she had read and videos she had watched regarding littles all over the world were enough the cause bile to form in her throat and further fill her with guilt for never being more active in knowing more about littles and helping those who would eventually become them.” in fairness a lot of that stuff is heavily censored and filtered before it gets to the U.S.
Especially the stuff she’d be looking up. Roni and Joey would be seeing much, much worse wit h their searches
8) “Underbreds and Littles weren’t overly discussed in classes for children of her age” that’s interesting that she’d be considered too young to learn about littles.
I’d think the curriculum is still being worked on at this point. THere are somethings that are being generally taught, but the government would still be filtering whatever generitech finds to match the narrative they are painting.
9) “She didn’t want things to change, either. Ciara wanted to show Joey her drawings, play video games with him, get piggyback rides and playfully thrown around by him. She wanted to be the center of attention and Joey always knew when to give it to her.” some of those things can still happen, just not the physical ones.
She and Sandi have had a harder time seeing it that way. Ciara more so cause she’s still younger and doesn’t question things to the extent that sandi would or pay as much attention to Joey and Roni’s conversations regarding the topic.
11) “I’ll talk to her… You both have done more than enough for us today…Roni and I can take care of CiCi and Sandi. Promise” How does he know Sandi went to Roni?
Intuition mostly. Usually the order of difficult discussions goes Roni, Joey, then parents. Joey is usually her second when Roni is too busy and Sandi actually recognizes it.
12) “his stomach formed a knot at the idea that it was his fault again, feeling that he’s letting his problems negatively affect everyone around him.” that’s a lot of guild he’ll be holding.
He still feels like a burden. It’ll be tough thing for overcome
13.1) “she was laying on her bed, her face buried in a pillow as she clutched a stuffed elephant.” cute.
13.2) “Do…do you need to hold Mr. Peanut?” So fucking cute. But also genuie kindness.
I smiled while writing it. I do something similar with my niece to get her to give me a hug lol
14) “In the near future, Mr. Peanut and he would be the same height, and that was if he was lucky” I was imagining Mr Peanut would be the size of a real elephant compared to infected Joey. but it seems smaller than that.
That’s a good point. I was probably thinking of the scale between a rhino and a human vs elephant and a human when I wrote that piece. I need to work on scaling as I go.
15) “CiCi, what’s wrong?” take a wild fucking guess, Joey.
Lol he knows, but it’s a way to get the conversation started
16) “CiCi, I’m not going anywhere you know. It’s the opposite actually. I’m going to be here. Forever. Doesn’t that sound fun?” that lines gonna bite him in the ass once he’s sent to a facility for several months.
That’s true. She’s going to be upset when she finds out he has to live somewhere else for a bit
17) “You won’t–you won’t by JoJo anymore.” She has about the understanding I thought she would.
I’m actually glad about that. The younger the character the harder time I have trying to figure out how much awareness and understanding to give them. Any feed back on that is appreciated. That and the size scaling.
18) “But…teacher. She says that the littles are animals. That they’re different. You’re an animal” Yeah well, that teacher’s a cunt.
Lmao
19) “he knew that schools would be touching on this subject, curriculum or otherwise” that is how indoctrination works.
For real.
20) “Yes CiCi, I am an animal. But, so what? Didn’t teacher tell you Littles can talk? And dance? And make jokes? And look at their friends’ paintings and drawings? And play different kinds of games?” Is he not gonna mention that Humans are also animals?
I considered including it but couldn’t remember when I personally was taught that fact. Plus, I thought it’d be a good way to show Ciara that he’s brave and not taking it as bad as she thinks, and that it’ll cheer her up. Plus I think it might show that there is a small part of him that’s starting to accept that the change is coming. Not that he’s happy about it or accepting his life as a little already, but knowing it’s inevitable to change like that and accepting it is better than fighting it every step of the way, as we see in Madisons world with Cindy.
21) “Yeah, I might end up being smaller, but I’ll still be able to talk to you and look at your drawings and listen to those cool stories you make up!” Joey’s good aty putting it a way she’ll understand.
Joey and Ciara have a strong bond. Not to downplay the one he has with Sandi, but Joey understands Ciara a bit better\easier.
22) “He’d be tiny, a few inches tall, and having to come to terms that his entire life would be dependant on the decisions of others. He wouldn’t have relevance, status, social interaction, or anything like that unless Roni decided it was okay” no matter how much he trusts Roni, that’d be a terrifying thought.
I think that’s the thought any little will have when they are with a guardian they have a really close bond with prior
23) “Jojo…is it going to hurt? When you…you know” He’ll be unconscious for it.
More than likely through the whole thing. Gavin’s the only one that felt it coming but didn’t know what it really was. Every other character has it happen in their sleep, so I think Gavin is an outlier
24) “A lot of the online postings never seemed to go over that” safe to bet that if it was painful it’d be mentioned. No news is good news type deal.
Either that or they just never tell the littles side of it. Though i guess on the otherhand, if a guardian is posting about it at all on the littles behalf, they’d be telling the whole story at that point.
25) “I’ll have you to protect me CiCi. And Roni, and Sandi, and our mom and dad.” It’s good to make her feel important.
very
27) “I am scared, Cici” Of course he is, who wouldn’t be?
That’d be a interesting story. A person excited to be a little lol
28) “I’ll help you and protect you, Jojo, No one will be mean to you ever, not while I’m around” Cici’s perfect.
I like her a lot. She adds a bit of innocence to everything that is fun to include even though younger characters are more difficult for me to write.
You and I have similar views on government and media changing facts to support their narrative they are feeding people to keep their power. I like your takes on everything else also, I think Cici’s will be the perfect giant little sister because she can make him make her the center of attention as much as she likes and he has to listen lol. She will be playing house with him and because of his size, he will have to be the baby lol. Cici’s childhood just got more fun lol.
1) A difficult choice for him to make. I think he made the right one
2.1) It’s good development for him
2.2) I think it’d be hard for him
2.3) To me it like saying “He never really liked Asians, or chinks” they’re the same thing, just one’s much ruder.
3) He seems to be a good judge of who should and shouldn’t be forgiven.
6.1) It is like Greg, except we know Greg did stand up for littles on occasion in the form of standing up for McKenzie. Interesting that Sandi wanted a little, even if briefly, it’d be interesting if she got one and we could see the interactions between Joey and Sandi’s little. It’s interesting to think about alternative routes Roni could have taken in better times.
6.2) One would think the uncertainty would make her more curious, lol
8) That makes sense.
11) He knows them so well.
12) It’s only gonna get worse.
14) Fair enough, but that’d be a tiny toy elephant if it’s the same height as a little
16) She’ll be devo
17) She wouldn’t have the maturity or intelligence yet to realise that a little is the same mentally after the change as they are before.
20) That’s a smart move on Joey’s part, and good to know he’s started to except already.
21) Kids are easier to understand than teens
22) I’m sure Gavin has that thought daily, as would Cindy, Greg, Kelli and Christine
23) Gavin had a few unique things happen to him, like being allowed to stay with his untrained mother before Mal convinced (and I think bribed) her to let Mal become his guardian.
24) Even if not all mention it, I think enough would that Joey would have noticed.
27) It’d be different, but also would seem out of place in this universe
28) She’s a sweetie, I look forward to seeing her interact with Little JoJo
I don’t want to be melodramatic, but this chapter was beautiful, moving, going far beyond a story set in a world of giants. Congratulations, you’re getting really good at this.
Thank you! Still trying to maintain my consistency as far as characters go